Halladay dominant as Blue Jays shut down Mariners

SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Roy Halladay gave up just four hits and
pitched his major league-leading sixth complete game, helping
the Toronto Blue Jays shut out the Seattle Mariners, 2-0, on
Monday night.

It was the righthander's first shutout of the year and 10th of
his career. Halladay (9-6) did not surrender a walk and struck
out six as he pitched his 32nd career complete game.

"Doc (Halladay) was outstanding tonight," Blue Jays manager Cito
Gaston said. "What more can you ask from your starter? He was on
tonight and I told the guys in the dugout if we could just get a
couple, I thought Doc could hold it for us."

Seattle manager Jim Riggleman, who was making his first
appearance in Safeco field as the new Mariners manager, was in
complete agreement with his rival skipper. It was all Halladay.

"Guys who went down and looked at some pitches in the video room
just said the ball was moving all over the place," Riggleman
said. "It was a credit to our guys that as good as he was
throwing, we did threaten in the seventh, but he made the
necessary pitches to get out of it."

The struggling Mariners mounted only one serious scoring threat
against Halladay, advancing a runner past first base for the
only time in the seventh.

The Blue Jays, who shut out the Atlanta Braves, 1-0, on Sunday
to end their homestand, had trouble scoring despite hammering 10
hits.

The loss spoiled Riggleman's home managerial debut . He took
over for John McLaren, who was fired June 19 prior to the
Mariners' nine-game road trip that concluded Sunday.

Despite going 6-3 on the trip, Seattle has baseball's worst
record at 31-51. The loss snapped a three-game Mariners winning
streak, which had tied their longest of the year.

Halladay survived a threat in the seventh when, leading 2-0, he
gave up consecutive one-out singles to Jeremy Reed and Richie
Sexson. Reed hustled to third and just beat a throw from left
fielder Brad Wilkerson to third baseman Scott Rolen.

But Halladay struck out Jeff Clement looking for the third time
and got Kenji Johjima to ground out to short to end the threat.

"I felt collected," Halladay said. "There's just that feeling of
being together. It's hard to explain."

"This was the best game I've caught," Blue Jays catcher Rod
Barajas said. "Everything was knees and below. He limited the
mistakes and that's what you have to do."

R.A. Dickey (2-4), making his fifth start of the year, held the
Blue Jays scoreless through the first four innings, but Toronto
broke through for a run in the fifth on David Eckstein's double
and Marco Scutaro's RBI single.

The Jays added a run in the sixth, but the damage could have
been much worse. Toronto loaded the bases with one out and
pushed a run across on Rod Barajas' groundout. Dickey got
Wilkerson on a grounder to second to keep the score at 2-0.

Dickey, who pitched seven shutout innings in his previous start
against the New York Mets, gave way to reliever Mark Lowe with
one out in the seventh and a runner on third. Lowe needed only
eight pitches to strike out the final two batters of the inning
and keep the game close.

The knuckleballer Dickey departed after giving up two runs on
nine hits, walking one and striking out three.

"Dickey was outstanding," Riggleman said. "It was a classic
ballgame. It was a very well-pitched game on both sides. We just
couldn't get anything going against Halladay."

Following the game, the Mariners placed righthander Felix
Hernandez on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained left ankle
and called up lefthander Cesar Jimenez from AAA Tacoma.